Le dirigeable fantastique (1906)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
aka The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship
More style than actual substance is what this Georges Melies film actually is. In the film Melies plays the title character who goes to bed and dreams that his airship actually takes flight. There's really not too much that happens in the three-minute running time, although I will admit that we get a pretty fun ending that includes some great fire effects, which are used perfectly with the red tinting used to show them off. Many of Melies films would have various objects taking off flying and we'd go on an adventure with them but that doesn't happen here. The airship takes off and that's pretty much it as it really never goes anywhere and we don't get to see any real action until the end of the picture. One thing that I did like were the actual effects that are taking place behind where Crazybones is sleeping. The way that they play out gives the film a 3-D like effect and I thought they were quite good.
